The Middle Tennessee women's basketball team advanced to the second round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) with a 69-58 victory over Ball State Thursday evening inside the Murphy Center.

With the win, Head Coach Rick Insell won his 250th victory all-time at Middle Tennessee, further extending his place at the top in all-time wins in program history.

The Blue Raiders (22-9) will play host to Arkansas State in the second round of the WNIT Sunday at 2 p.m.Tickets go on sale Friday and may be purchased at the MT Ticket Office or online.

Sophomore Olivia Jones scored a game-high 19 points and tied her career-high with eight steals to lead Middle Tennessee against Ball State. She also grabbed five rebounds and dished our four assists. Junior Brea Edwards recorded her third double-double of the season and second in the last four games with 17 points and a game-high 12 boards.

During postseason play, Edwards is averaging 16 points and seven rebounds per game, both above her regular season averages.

Sophomore Ty Petty rounded out the leading scorers as she chipped in with 13 points for her fifth straight game in double figure scoring.
MT committed only eight miscues while scoring 18 points off 20 BSU turnovers. It's the 10th time this season the Blue Raiders have turned it over less than 10 times.

The first 4:47 of the contest would stay tight as no team held a lead by more than four points. After Ball State (17-14) tied things up at 10-all, both teams wouldn't score for 3:05 until junior TiAnna Porter scored two of her nine points on a layup that broke the tie.

Moments later following a pair of Edwards' free throws that tied the game at 14-14, MT pieced together a 16-4 run over a span of 5:07 that put the Blue Raiders in front, 30-18. Jones and Edwards took charge during the run as Jones scored or assisted on 10 of the points while Edwards drained a pair of trifectas.

Middle Tennessee stayed ahead of BSU the rest of the way and took its largest lead in the first half at 13, 38-25, into the locker room after Petty delivered a nifty backdoor pass to a cutting Jones before the end of the period.

Jones and Edwards paced MT in the opening half offensively with 15 and 13 points, respectively. The Blue Raiders took advantage of 13 Cardinal turnovers while scoring 13 points off the miscues.

The Blue Raiders kept up the intensity in the second half as they held a double-digit lead majority of the stanza while the lead would balloon to as much as 21 after Petty converted a layup.

Over the next 7:52 of the contest, the Cardinals closed the game to seven, 62-55, after outscoring the Blue Raiders, 22-8.

But MT scored seven of the next 10 points thanks to back-to-back lay ups by senior Shanice Cason and Petty followed by three made free throws by Jones and freshman Rebecca Reuter that gave the Blue Raiders a 69-58 lead en route to clinching the win.

MT will look to keep the postseason momentum on Sunday against Arkansas State at 2 p.m., inside the Glass House.